Mario Party: Christmas Edition?
by justmegaman
Summary: When Christmas is looming on the horizon, the Mushroom Kingdom discovers it may not come this year; and so, they hold a Mario Party to solve it with stars! But will an intruder ruin everything...? Secret Santa story for Champ 15.


Cold wind pressed against Toad's face as he gulped and looked silently over to his right. Green and blue filled his vision, taking the shape of a person. They adjusted their bright hat and then dug their hands into their pockets, staring forward. They looked serious, a fairly rare emotion for this person.

His other two opponents seemed jittery and mischievous, respectively. The one word for each of them seemed to encompass basically all their feelings at the moment, so not much else needed to be said.

The board was a new one called Dancing Sugarplums; snowfall had stopped, but it was still below-freezing, and all the snow was intact perfectly, pristine and nice across the entire landscape. Penguins skated about, smiling in anticipation for today's party.

He looked back towards the starting line, and he quickly felt a lump form in his throat. Why was he so nervous? It was just another Mario Party, cold or not… but this was important. This was VERY important. If only because of why they were holding this party…

The Star Spirits believed the spirit of Christmas had been lost among the people of the Mushroom Kingdom. And so, they sent out an announcement that Santa T., who always delivered the Christmas presents, would not be going out this year. Wanting to show the Star Spirits that they still had Christmas spirit, they decided to collect stars and offer them up to the Star Spirits as a token of appreciation.

But, there was a serious problem.

There was no proper way to collect the stars. Stars were mystical items that could only be snatched up under special circumstances. If evil was afoot, if there was a Mario Party, if E. Gadd was stuck in—

A MARIO PARTY! The whole gang came up with a plan to have a brief one on Christmas Eve so as to bring Christmas back to the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi, Toad, and Toadette all quickly signed themselves up for the plan, wanting to help out and not having much to do on Christmas Eve.

However, an unexpected fourth member crashed the party. Forcing himself in and declaring he "promised" to help out with the proceedings, Bowser Jr. was thrust upon the Mario Party. The gang had differing opinions on this, but ultimately he was allowed in, most thinking he had good intentions.

Bowser Jr. had a different plan. One he was concocting in his mind right there at the starting line, as referee Lakitu made the final preparations…

* * *

"_Gwar har!" laughed Bowser, sipping from some unkingly orange juice as sat on his throne. "This is BRILLIANT! The Mushroom Kingdom has been soiled and declared naughty, and there won't be a Christmas this year! I LOOOOVE my evilness!"_

_Bowser rose up his golden cup and toasted with his assistant Kamek and son Bowser Jr. This Christmas could not have been a better one for the trio; simply because there wasn't one. That had been their only Christmas wish, ironically, and it had been fulfilled._

_Suddenly, Kammy Koopa came bursting into the room, floating atop her puttering old broom. She huffed and puffed as she hurried up to King Bowser, who eyed her with an annoyed expression._

"_What does the hag want, Dad?" mumbled Bowser Jr. to his father. Kammy sneered at him as she got closer to her master._

"_I heard that!" she exclaimed in a shrill voice before turning to Bowser and giving a slight bow._

"_What is it this time, Kammy?" asked Bowser as he mashed his right cheek up against his hand. She took a deep breath and gasped for air before she declared the big news;_

"_Christmas is o-on! They're having a Mario Party to get the stars for it!"_

"_WHAAAAAAT?"_

_Bowser's orange juice flew out of his mouth and splattered all over Kammy's face. She grimaced behind a sea of orange fluid as Bowser leaped from his throne and paced around the room, his hands holding each other behind his spiky back._

"_This isn't good, this isn't good, this isn't good!" shouted Bowser to himself, running his hands through his fiery red locks. "How could this BE! How could they think to have a Mario Party to solve this? Those stars will ruin everything! BLAST IT!"_

_In a fit of rage, flames exploded from Bowser's mouth right as he turned around and faced Kamek. He and Kammy looked at each other with annoyed faces, one charred, one orange._

"_Dad! Don't worry!" yelled the small Bowser Jr., scurrying up to his panting father. "I have a plan! We're gonna stop 'em!"_

"_Huh? What do you mean?" questioned Bowser, looking down at the small Koopa Prince, tugging on his leg._

"_Well, what if I infiltrated the Mario Party?" asked Bowser Jr. in a sister tone of voice. "Then I could steal all the stars and ruin everything! That'd still ruin Christmas for sure, right?"_

_Bowser looked at his scaly feet in thought for a couple seconds before it shot up and he grinned evilly at his son, nodding energetically._

"_You really have the blood of a Koopa King in ya, son!" cackled Bowser, patting his snickering son on the back encouragingly. "You'll invade those losers' party and we'll steal away Christmas! Ha ha haaaaa! Those slimeballs won't get any presents!"_

"_Y-Your Nastiness, I'm not sure if this is such an excellent idea…" said a worried Kamek as he hobbled over to Bowser, who looked down at him with uninterested eyes. "I mean, we don't know when the date of this party is, or how Bowser Jr. will get in, or even how—"_

"_We'll find a way!" growled Bowser, leaving spittle behind in the Magikoopa's face as he leaned down to his level before declaring his statement. Kamek sighed and shook it off as Bowser grabbed Kammy and ran off, mumbling something about finding more party info…_

_

* * *

_

Bowser Jr. rolled his neck and head about, licking his lips with a very slight evil smile. Toad eyed him curiously; he had been one of the ones who had opposed letting the Koopa Prince in on this party. He was still afraid he would crash it somehow, or wouldn't help them with their real goal.

Luigi turned his head around and saw Daisy waving to him, grinning widely. Many of their friends had come to spectate the Mario Party taking place today, and Luigi was trying to act tough and everything, but he was sufficiently nervous. What if he screwed up and everybody laughed at him afterwards? What if they all booed and threw rotten fruit and peanuts at him? What if the announcer forgot his name?

While Luigi was curled up in a mental ball of worry, Toadette was remaining silent, trying to keep her pre-game jitters to herself. This was all for the entire fate of Christmas… if she happened to mess up, it would all be on her shoulders. The tiny servant to Princess Peach hid her frown as well as she could behind a striped pink scarf and tried sticking to the shadows.

Finally, Lakitu came rushing up, huffing and puffing as he gripped a microphone. After regaining his breath, he yelled into the mic:

"ARE YOU ALL READY FOR ANOTHER MARIO PARTY?"

"YES!" answered the four competitors and the audience.

"THEN GET READY!" declared Lakitu, as the crowd went insane. "One to get ready… two for the show… three for the money… four for…

"GERONIMOOOOOO!"

Four dice popped up over the competitors' heads. They all leaped up swiftly, receiving 6 for Toad, 8 for Toadette, 2 for Bowser Jr., and 5 for Luigi.

"First up we have Ms. Toadette!" announced Lakitu, holding a microphone close to his constantly-moving mouth as he floated in midair in front of the contestants and crowd. "Second, Toad! Third, Luigi! And last; but not least; Bowser Jr.!"

Bowser Jr. grumbled something under his breath for being last. Luigi picked it up, and he shuddered, deciding not to dwell on it.

"All right, to start you off, you all get ten coins!" shouted Lakitu. Several hoots and hollers came as coins dropped into the four competitors' pockets. Toad and Luigi both patted their pockets securely.

"From here, I think you know what to do," said Lakitu with a smile, retracting his mic a bit. "Remember, still have fun, but put your all into this and together, collect as many as stars as you can. This is for saving Christmas! You have to work extra hard!"

They all nodded to Lakitu, most of them with determination in their eyes. He widened his smile, nodded back, and sunk into the audience, floating over the foursome's heads and into the background.

"Toadette, up first! Hit that block!" hooted Lakitu. Toadette hopped up cutely and did so as the block appeared, receiving a 4. Her feet pattered along the soft, perfect white snow, as she walked four spaces calmly. She grimaced when she came upon a red space, losing 3 of her coins and putting her down to 7.

"Hopefully I'll have better luck…" said Toad quietly as he stepped forward and another block appeared. A 7 landed him on a blue space, upping him to 13.

Coincidentally enough, both Luigi and Bowser Jr. both got sevens as well, putting them all at 13 coins versus Toadette's 7; they were tied for first against Toadette.

"Now, for our first minigame!" shouted Lakitu, floating up to the contestants and, once he was sure they could all see his classic camera, he dropped it down, and on the tiny screen it was shown to be 3 vs. 1; Luigi, Toad, and Bowser Jr. vs. Toadette.

"All right! And our minigame will be…?"

A new minigame showed up as the screen scrolled between four; Candy Cane Chaos. With a snap of fingers, the contestants and spectators were transported to the minigame field, with the watchers sitting in bleachers made out of pure ice.

The contestants were out on the field. Toadette was piloting a crane-like machine, but a massive, spiked candy cane was there instead of a typical metal crane. The other three were out on a lake, standing on ice blocks floating atop the water. A look around show there were several ice blocks around the lake, all in relatively close proximity to each other.

"All right," began Lakitu, "the rules are pretty simple here. You three will turn away and close your eyes while Toadette inputs some coordinates for her destructive cane to follow; specifically, three ice blocks to target and smash. Then, she'll look away why you three hop onto whatever ice blocks you want to be on and think are safest; then, just watch what happens. We go through five rounds. If Toadette can knock you all out within them, she wins. If not, you win. You all ready?"

The quartet nodded eagerly.

"Ready… set… GO!"

Toad, Luigi, and Bowser Jr. all turned their heads away, covering their eyes with their hands. Bowser Jr. tried to peek as Toadette was inputting coordinates in a clunky manner, but Toad slapped him and he didn't see anything.

"Done!" declared Toadette, as she turned away and let her opponents take position. Bowser Jr. stayed firmly planted where he was, while Luigi stepped two ice blocks up, and Toad went left, down twice, and right.

"WE'RE DONE!" they all shouted simultaneously. Toadette looked at them, and gave a small smile. She hit the red button below the touch screen for inserting coordinates, and the cane quickly smashed into Bowser Jr., flinging him off his ice block and right at the base of the ice bleachers as he wailed like a baby. There were some scattered chuckles from the crowd, and Toadette beamed in triumph.

Suddenly, the cane came crashing down again, and this time it slammed into Toad. He screeched girlishly as he flew away, slamming right into Bowser Jr. and causing a slight crack in the bleachers' base.

The final smashed and broke the ice block that Luigi was standing on. He winced as it cracked into pieces that floated through the lake, knowing that he had considered not moving like Bowser Jr., making that one a close call.

"Come on, Luigi! You can do iiiiit!" yelled Bowser Jr. in his atypical squeaky voice. Luigi waved weakly back to him, preparing himself.

"All right, next round!" announced Lakitu, and at those words, Luigi looked away and covered his eyes, just like before, as Toadette sneakily pressed an ice block on the touch screen. She looked away herself, and, befuddled, decided to stay where he was.

"All right, I'm good!" shouted Luigi. Toadette looked out at him and jammed the red button; the ice block directly to the right of him was destroyed.

Luigi winced once again, and two more rounds passed by with Toadette just barely missing Luigi again both times. Very soon, it was the final round, and everyone was already on the edge of their seats just for this first minigame. Mario was leaning forward and sweating profusely, wanting Luigi to win rather badly.

Luigi waved nervously at his brother as he had frequently done throughout the contest, looking at Lakitu as well. Holding the microphone back up to his mouth, he shouted, "FINAL ROUND! Will Luigi take the coins, or will Toadette? I can't believe how exciting this simple first game has been, folks! I can't wait to see the rest of this from here!"

Luigi gulped and turned away; Toadette was no longer cocky as before, and she uncertainly entered some coordinates, biting her bottom lip and furrowing her brow.

She squeaked, "Done," and turned away for Luigi to make his move. Luigi looked around; there weren't that many ice blocks around now. He could still move about fancifully, but he decided the most unexpected move here would be to plant himself on the ice block where he was; coincidentally the one he had started at.

He said that he was done in a very similar fashion to Toadette. Toadette didn't even look as she slowly rose her hand over the red button, making it look ominous as she kept her head turned away, her palm plastered over her eyes. Luigi leaned forward closer and closer, and when she pressed the button…

..

..

..

..

..

..

…he was knocked away with incredible speed, flying into his own brother and making them both topple over.

Toadette jumped up and cheered as did several members of the crowd. A magical tiny jingle played as Lakitu floated up high and announced, "Toadette wins our first minigame! She wins ten coins!"

Toadette smiled graciously as she jumped out of the machine, hopped across the ice blocks to solid land, and watched as coins swiftly descended into her pocket.

"All right, back to the board!" declared Lakitu. "We have an exciting Mario Party in place already! Let's do it!"

The game continued on from there, with some rather unusual happenings; the new minigames continued to surprise with their intensity, as there was one named Undercover Santa, a free-for-all four-person minigame, where the quartet had to pick out the real Santa Claus from various imposters with features that gave away their identities compared to the real one; hints were constantly dropped off as to who the real one was, and they went off these descriptions. The ultimate winner was Bowser Jr., whose quick observation came in handy.

There were many other minigames, but only a couple other notable ones, like Elf Production Line, where the contestants were required to make specific gifts out of unusual materials, and My Two Front Teeth, where one team of two had to pull off a loose front tooth faster than the other two-person team. The victors in the latter were the stronger Luigi and Toad, by a long shot.

There were also some unique board spaces; Luigi was placed back at the starting line once because of some naughty penguins, Toadette won a game of arm wrestling with a bulky elf and received 20 coins, and Toad and Bowser Jr. shared some Christmas candy through random choice.

However, there was one most important quality; stars. Only two had gotten stars so far; Luigi and Bowser Jr. Bowser Jr. had grabbed an astounding four (Toad jokingly said he was cheating at one point) while Luigi had two. The two Toads had come close to obtaining one and both had quite a few coins, but neither had any stars in their possession.

Now it was at the last five turns, and the four contestants, three of them with high spirits for saving Christmas and the last with high spirits for ruining Christmas, gathered back at the starting space temporarily. However, rather than Lakitu, a shocking pair appeared for the last five turns commentary; Princess Zelda and Pikachu!

"Hi there, everyone!" declared Pikachu, his voice coming out of a small translator box on his neck. "We're here to help you out at the Mushroom Kingdom and give some commentary now in place of Lakitu! Take it away, Zelda!"

"Right, Pikachu!" said Zelda with a peppy tone of voice. "Well, in first place it seems we have… Bowser Jr.! Next up, in second… Luigi! Third is… Toadette! And pitifully in last… Toad!"

Toad rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as Lakitu scooped him up with his fishing pole and plopped him down in front of Zelda and Pikachu.

"All right, Toad," began Pikachu with a confident smile, "since you're in last and everything, we're gonna help you out a bit. A random prize for you, from this wheel," a wheel almost magically popped up behind the two hosts, "will be chosen! Ready to spin it?"

Toad nodded unsurely and approached it, clutched the side, and gave it a good, hard spin.

It circled round and round, and Zelda, Pikachu, and Toad all watched with varying degrees of excitement. Suddenly it landed on a prize that shocked Toad:

A star!

"Ha ha! Looks like you get a star, Toad!" said Zelda joyfully. The golden treasure fell from the skies slowly, circling and spinning gorgeously as it twinkled. Before it could even touch the ground, Toad leaped up and grabbed it with excitement, making the two guest hosts chuckle.

"Well, now you're in third!" beamed Pikachu. "Hope you enjoyed that gift from us! Now then, we're gone!"

Zelda and Pikachu disappeared in a flash; since Zelda grabbed onto Pikachu before they did, it was probably due to Zelda's Teleport ability.

And with that the next turn passed, rather uneventful; everyone gained some coins and competed in a basic, four-player platforming minigame.

The fourth-to-last turn is where it gets exciting.

Toadette was up first as always, and she was soooo close to the next star. Only 2 spaces away… and this would put her ahead of Toad if she nabbed it, too. Smiling, she hit the block and saw…

a 1.

"Y-YOU'RE KIDDING ME!" spat Toadette, uncharacteristically losing her temper. She clenched her fists and stomped her feet, hardening her eyes a bit. "Th-that's impossible! The block is rigged! RIGGED!"

"Toadette, calm down!" shouted Toad, from about 3 spaces down. She grumbled something under her breath and jumped forward one space; not only that, it was another red space, placing her from 51 coins to 48. This only worsened the poor pink Toad's situation.

As Toadette pouted on her space, Toad was up next, and he was 5 spaces away from the star. He was rather close as well, and so was getting just as excited as his sister. The block popped up and he hit it hard, and he received… a 5! Exactly right!

Grinning devilishly, Toad bounded forward, hungry for his prize. But… an unexpected surprise lay in wait for him on the space right before his beloved star.

A trap. Laid by Bowser Jr. He had placed an orb here about ten turns back, and it would not activate when landed on, like Toadette had done, but only when passed (obviously. And so, it took effect; a springboard shot out of the trick space and Toad screamed unintelligibly as he was rocketed back to the starting point.

"W-what?" Toad asked in confusion, looking around. He fumed as he realized it had been a trap, and he stared daggers at Bowser Jr., who wasn't too many spaces away. The Koopa Prince looked over at him and winked, with an evil grin on his face. It made Toad uneasy, and he just sighed as he stepped back onto that brown starting space.

Luigi was up next, and he now had some minor confidence instilled in him. In the back of his mind, there was hope to get first place at the ending ceremonies; he would definitely receive the Happening Star, and maybe the Coin Star as well. There were some other stars he could possibly receive, and thus he definitely hoped that he could manage to snatch away first from the sneaky Bowser Jr.

He was fairly far away from the star, and so was happy when he got a 9. He walked forward pretty calmly, but became ecstatic and started running when he realized the 9 would propel him to the star, and there were absolutely no traps standing in his way.

Bowser Jr. looked unhappy as Luigi grabbed the star and grinned as it shined and Lakitu pointed it out to the cheering crowd. Pride filled him and he became very, very happy, shining.

Suddenly, a blur flew by him and grabbed the star, snickering madly. Luigi was shocked as the blur stopped a few spaces ahead and became recognizable as Bowser Jr.

"B-Bowser Jr.? What are you doing?" Luigi asked with as shocked expression. Bowser Jr. shook his head at him as Lakitu, the audience, and the two Toads stared at Bowser Jr. in a vulnerable way.

"Don't you losers get it?" laughed the prince, pocketing the star. "I was NEVER here to help you 'save Christmas', you nincompoops!" Another evil snicker broke up his speech before he continued. "My dad sent me here to RUIN it! I'm gonna take all the stars and destroy 'em! Heh heh heh… I'll even do it RIGHT NOW!"

Luigi gasped and ran forward, gulping as he thought of a plan in the few steps up to Bowser Jr. The only thing he could think of was trying to grab all the stars in the pouch at his hip, and so he tried that.

"No way!" squealed Bowser Jr., swatting the green sidekick away; he tumbled to the ground and fell back into the blanketed snow. "Now then…"

Bowser Jr. threateningly rose up a star, squeezing it tight. Its eyes looked confused and downcast as its owner prepared to throw it to the ground and smash it.

"WAIT!" screeched a female voice.

Bowser Jr. looked over behind Luigi and saw Toadette, red in the face with her eyes shut tight.

"What is it?" he scoffed, smirking as if he were shrugging off the servant's mere existence.

"Y-you… you…" She clenched her fists hard and opened her burning eyes before continuing. "YOU PIG! How could you… do something like this? Haven't you ever experienced the feeling of Christmas? How can you ruin it for us, destroy these poor stars, destroy what Christmas is all about! You might think this is noble or something but it's just… YOU'LL JUST BE A FAILURE IN LIFE!"

It was something of a hodge-podge of insults, but it seemed to cut Bowser Jr. deep. He cringed and shook a bit, quivering all over. Mario was about to leap out of his seat and quickly defeat him when suddenly, he let out a long sigh and, with his face down, walked slowly to Toadette.

When he reached her and her stunned face, he grabbed the pile of stars out of his pouch and handed them to her. He looked up at her with very glum eyes.

"Here," he mumbled, turning his face back to his shoes. "You win… I'm…" He looked to be struggling with what was next. "…I'm sorry."

There was awkward silence for about a minute, when Toadette suddenly took a step forward and hugged Bowser Jr. He was totally shocked, and he even blushed just a little.

"You… you really understand the Christmas spirit," sniffed Toadette, hugging him surprisingly tightly. He smiled lightly, knowing this wouldn't be celebrated back at the Bowser Badlands, but for now, he didn't really care.

That night, the Mario Party was adjourned early, and Bowser Jr/ spent Christmas Eve at the Mushroom Kingdom. Santa T. did indeed come and leave presents, and it was a very happy Christmas.

Bowser Jr. had stayed the night at Peach's Castle, and he was a little glum when he woke up because everybody was enjoying their presents while he had nothing. However, Peach came up to him with an unmarked box that she, "had a feeling belonged to him."

When he opened it, inside he found a decked-out black-and-red skateboard and a note addressed to him. He picked it up and read its contents, which were,

"_You may not have intended it, but it was you who saved Christmas. Thanks for the help!_

_Santa"_

Bowser Jr. hardly even cared about the skateboard. That one note stayed in the back of his mind forever, as did that one good deed on Christmas. Even when he went back to his evil lifestyle, Bowser Jr. always remembered that Christmas; and when he did that, a smile and a teardrop came upon his face.

_Merry Christmas, Champ! I'm really worried that this was too rushed, and I'm almost right at the deadline, but hey, at least I got it up. :P Really hope you enjoy, though, Champ! And this one is just for you;_

_~Stay absolutely awesome_


End file.
